Just random thought. What if instead of the usual 10+ result on hack and slash it “activates” one of your weapon tag? That would imply they don’t appear “under the camera” all the time, on in these awesome 10+ moments.
Just random thought.
Just random thought.
But your tags should be active all the time, taken into consideration whenever they’re relevant.
This is the kind of thing you could really highlight on a 10+, but it doesn’t need to replace or change anything else about the move to do so.
It’s because we mostly forgot to use them plus it’s a pain if you have to narrate each forceful or messy hit
Get some notecards and tent-fold them in front of everyone. Write on the front the tags your most commonly used weapons have — stuff you pick up will be memorable because it’s an exception, so you shouldn’t need to worry. The GM, and the players, can now at a glance see what fictional positioning should be taken into consideration when it comes time to knock skulls.
I try to use the standard weapon tags (and monster attack tags) whenever they would naturally be relevant. But I do like mechanics that randomly trigger special effects. I would absolutely steal this idea to trigger magical effects or non-standard tags.
The Infernal Flamberge of Flaming Fire
When you roll a 12+ on any roll while wielding this Flamberge in battle, it bursts into flame for the rest of the conflict. Just so you know, the fire is from the Place of Torment, so don’t get any on you.
Weapon tags have always felt to me kinda like a dangling idea, not well-integrated with the rest of the rules, so I think prompts to use them are pretty cool.
I’m with John Aegard on this one. Almost everything in Dungeon World basically says ‘do what makes sense in the fiction’. Weapon tags on the other hand feel very mechanical and ‘game-y’.
They seem transported from D&D and there they make complete sense as it is a rather mechanical game when it comes to combat. In DW they don’t really serve a clear purpose. Many people seem to simply forget about them, while others (mostly the D&D folks) seem to expect them to trigger on EVERY attack, where they can easily get in the way of the fiction.
Personally, I would say simply ignore them, but highlight attacks if it fits the description of the players’ attack on succesful rolls and reward those successes accordingly. If anything, it will probably encourage them to give more rich descriptions of their attacks.
If you do feel you need a move or mechanic to back it up, your suggestion would work pretty decently to do that I think.
Weapon tags make sense to me, and not because I have any attachment to any form of D&D that uses them. If the players forget what reach weapons let them do, have some NPCs with reach attacks, and they won’t forget again, right? Or just remind them…